How Epstein and Maxwell used an elite Midwest arts school to prey on girls

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https://www.npr.org/2026/02/19/nx-s1-57 ... ne-maxwell

Years before they were convicted sex offenders, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell used his wealth to gain access to a prestigious boarding school for young artists in Michigan, using a rental lodge Epstein donated to the school as a base from which to recruit some of their earliest victims, according to Department of Justice records and former campus administrators.

The idyllic, nearly century-old Interlochen Center for the Arts, tucked between two lakes south of Traverse City, features grade-school- and high-school-level programs in music, theater, dance and visual arts, among others. It's famous as an incubator for young artistic talent and boasts alumni such as Josh Groban, Norah Jones, Chappell Roan, Felicity Huffman and Da'Vine Joy Randolph.

NPR reviewed hundreds of pages of Department of Justice (DOJ) documents on Epstein, interviewed current and former Interlochen officials and spoke with a woman who says that as a teenager at the school, she was targeted by Epstein and Maxwell. What emerges is a portrait of Interlochen as an institution that celebrated openness but that, in accepting Epstein's financial support, became unwittingly associated with his crimes.